Lord Patten – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Patten on 2016-05-18.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their assessment of the comments by the Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth, quoted in The Sunday Times on 8 May, that the Zionist bashing” at universities “has gone unchallenged”.”

Baroness Evans of Bowes Park

The Government is clear that there is absolutely no place in higher education or anywhere else in society for bigotry, hatred or any form of racism such as anti-Semitism.

Recent reports of anti-Semitism are extremely concerning and must be met with a decisive response. We expect all universities and all bodies with a role in English higher education to be absolutely clear in their opposition to racism in all its forms, and to have robust policies in place to tackle such hatred and support victims.

At the Government’s request, Universities UK has set up a taskforce to examine what more can be done to tackle harassment and hate crime on campus, and this includes anti-Semitism within its remit.